The shortest flight ever?
We decided to fly from Langkawi to Penang because the land route takes six hours and several modes of transport.
By plane? Twenty‑eight minutes.
Quite possibly the shortest flight I’ve ever taken.
I’d barely clicked my seatbelt before the captain announced we were landing.
The stewardess sprinted down the aisle, flinging peanuts at passengers and then sprinted back to collect the rubbish like she was competing on Supermarket Sweep.
Still — it kept the “are we there yet?” count to zero.
Penang Island has a colourful past.
Originally ruled by the Sultanate of Kedah, the British rocked up in 1786 and acquired the island, establishing George Town as their first Southeast Asian port. Waves of migrants from China and India followed, creating the multicultural mix Penang is famous for today.
The island itself is only 24 km long and 15 km wide yet somehow squeezes in nearly a million people — mostly along the east coast, where two long bridges connect it to the mainland.
The centre and west are saved for the hills, jungle and monkeys.
And then there was our accommodation.
Welcome to Mar Vista: Post‑Apocalyptic Chic
We booked a month in an Airbnb at Mar Vista Resort, a condo complex about twenty minutes from George Town.
Built in the 90s, it was once a top‑notch holiday resort mixed with residential apartments.
Fast‑forward a few decades and the resort side has collapsed, the maintenance budget has virtually gone, and nature has staged a full‑scale takeover.
It looks like the apocalypse had hit.
Abandoned cars with smashed windows sit in the dangerous monkey-ghetto car park.
The reception is long locked up with broken windows. The communal toilets resemble the one from Trainspotting.
Everywhere you look: peeling paint, ripped ceiling panels, rusted posts, gates, fences, exposed wires, broken fixtures, and an occupancy rate of about 25%, giving the whole place a ghost‑town vibe.
But, mostly importantly, the main pool works.
Yes, the pool bar is derelict, and the spa pool is full of green sludge, but the main pool is clean.
The gym also technically exists, though the equipment looks like it was last used during a 1993 step‑aerobics class. I had to search for some fluorescent shorts and a headband to fit in.
Our first challenge was simply getting in.
The security guard refused to let us through because Airbnb guests aren’t allowed.
Not ideal when you are an Airbnb guest. After some back‑and‑forth with the “manager” and a few creative truths, we were waved through.
The duplex apartment itself was huge — two floors, two balconies, separate rooms for the kids, and a breath-taking 180‑degree view over the Melaka Strait, the beaches, the mountains, and the high‑rises of Tanjung Bungah. It made up for everything else.
The list of things that broke, fell off, leaked, or died during our stay is too long to recount. My fingers are worn out from messaging the manager. Eventually we just gave up — at least the kids can’t damage anything that isn’t already damaged.
And honestly? At 40% cheaper than anything else nearby, it fits the budget.
After four weeks of constant travel, staying put for a month gave us all time to slow down.
And Penang’s street‑food scene blows Langkawi’s out of the water. Within days we’d found a regular dinner spot like we had in Thailand and were back on budget.
There’s a sizeable workschooling community here and we’ve met a good crowd to meet up with three times a week, so the kids can burn off that energy, while the parents get some needed connection.
The Bulu Bulu Café: Cute Animals, Questionable Ethics
The Bulu Bulu Café advertised capybaras wandering around while you eat, plus reptiles and other animals on display. Located in the city centre of all places, we arrived, took one sniff of the capybara dining area, and immediately decided we would not be eating there.
Cute? Yes. Hygienic? Nope.
We paid the entrance fee to see the other animals — and instantly regretted supporting it.
Three cramped floors in the city centre somehow squeezed in rabbits, skunks, raccoons, snakes, goats, ducks, chickens, and even a llama.
All indoors. All in tiny spaces.
It was bizarre and a bit heartbreaking as one of the racoons had clearly gone insane as he paced up and down non-stop, scratching at the glass, the whole time were there.
Alex did get to hold a snake for the first time, which made his day.
As for the llama — the sign said he lived in a tiny pen, but he was nowhere to be seen. “Where’s the llama?” we asked. “At the toilet,” they replied.
We assumed this meant some kind of animal‑toilet area. Nope.
Moments later, a llama casually walked out of a human toilet on the third floor. We had so many questions and absolutely no answers to that one.
Life on Penang: Beaches, Storms & Fireworks
Penang has a handful of decent beaches, but there’s one problem: you swim with risk. Jellyfish rule the waves, so our beach time has been limited.
Thankfully, the pool has become a daily ritual and keeps the kids happy.
After 93 days of sunshine, we finally saw rain — and what a show.
From our 11th‑floor balcony we watched thick black clouds roll in, lightning crack across the sky, and thunder shake the building.
The thunder hasn’t stopped… but not because of storms.
It’s Chinese New Year, and fireworks have been going off every night past midnight as the celebration goes on for fifteen days. With the density of housing here, the whole building shakes. After the Hua Hin firework incident, this has not helped the kid’s recovery from loud bangs.
We’ve got two weeks left to enjoy the slow pace. There’s still plenty we want to do, but the heat is brutal. If we’re not out and back by 10:30am, we melt.
Maybe we need some early‑morning fireworks to blast us out of bed and get moving.
